Semiconductor manufacturers are required to test semiconductor dice to evaluate the electrical characteristics of the integrated circuits formed on the dice. For testing a semiconductor die, temporary electrical connections must be made to the die. With a packaged die, the electrical connections can be made to the external leads of the die. With an unpackaged die, electrical connections can be made to contact locations on the die using a temporary package for the die. Typically, the contact locations are bond pads, test pads, or fuse pads formed on the face (i.e., circuit side) of the die. The temporary package can include contact members configured to electrically engage the contact locations on the die.
One type of semiconductor die, in addition to having contact locations on its face, also includes an electrode formed on the backside of the die. The backside electrode can be used for grounding, or electrically biasing, the integrated circuits on the die. The backside electrode can be formed as a thin metal film that covers the entire backside, or covers just a portion of the backside of the die. The semiconducting substrate of a die can also act as an electrode in relation to the integrated circuits on the substrate.
For testing semiconductor dice having backside electrodes, it would be advantageous for a temporary package to have the capability to electrically contact the backside electrodes. This would allow ground and bias potentials to be applied through the backside electrodes during test procedures such as burn-in, failure analysis and full functionality testing. The present invention is directed to a temporary package for testing semiconductor dice with backside electrodes.